Steve Twigg

This funded PhD opportunity is based in the research team at the University of Leeds and focuses on soft robotics and mechanobiology. The project will advance CellQ-Twin , a soft robotic cell-stretching platform designed to investigate how mechanical forces influence cellular behaviour in health and disease. The research addresses multiaxial and rhythmic mechanobiology and brings together soft robotics, biomedical engineering and cellular research. The work may be applied to several biological and medical areas, including cardiovascular mechanobiology with Professor David Beech and Professor Serena Zacchigna; musculoskeletal mechanobiology with Dr Heather Owston and Ala Altaie; and cranial suture mechanobiology with Professor Erwin Pauws and Professor Steve Twigg. The collaboration spans the University of Leeds, the International Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology, University College London and the University of Oxford. The project offers a research environment at the intersection of healthcare mechatronics, soft robotic platform development and mechanobiology, with applications in understanding cellular responses relevant to health and disease.